MEPs sitting in the European Parliament cost three times as much as
Westminster MPs at a price tag of £1.79 million each a year, new figures
show.

Lord Sassoon, the Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, revealed the cost of an MEP is £1.79 million compared with £590,000 per MP. Peers sitting in the House of Lords cost just £130,000 a year.

He gave the breakdown of costs per politician based on figures that show the European Parliament costs £1.3 billion per year, shared by taxpayers across member countries. In contrast, the combined cost of the House of Commons and House of Lords was £494 million last year.

MEPs are also more highly paid than MPs, getting a salary of around £80,000 per year compared with £65,738 in Westminster.

The data emerged in answer to a parliamentary question by Lord Stoddart of Swindon, an independent Labour peer, who said they laid bare the "appallingly high running cost of the European Parliament".

“These are eye watering figures that make Westminster look like very good value for money," he said. "The European Parliament costs £838 million per annum more than the combined cost of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

The former Swindon MP urged the Government to take a "serious look at its contribution to the cost of running the European Parliament" as it seeks to reduce the deficit.

"This is an institution that does not hold proper debates and whose members cannot even introduce a Private Members Bill," he said. "It merely acts as a rubber stamp for the unelected European Commission’s legislative proposals. The number of MEPs has risen from 736 to 754, since these figures were produced, so even these huge figures fall short of the real cost.”

David Cameron last year met with resistance when he urged European institutions to cut costs as he went to Brussels to negotiate the next seven years of spending.

He called on the Europe Commission, the Brussels civil service, to reduce its budget by sacking staff and cuts the pay of 4,000 officials on six-figure salaries.

However, the Commission repeatedly ignored requests from member countries to reduce staffing costs.

A commission spokesman told The Daily Telegraph at the time: "We declined as it's a lot of work and waste of time for our staff who busy with more urgent matters.

"Because of language requirements, we are better educated than national civil servants. We're high fliers not burger flippers."